The present invention relates generally to floor cleaning implements and more particularly to handles for floor cleaning implements.
Floor cleaning implements are well known and widely used to clean hard flooring surfaces such as ceramic tile, hardwood, laminate, linoleum and marble floors. Examples of floor cleaning implements are mops, dusters and brooms. Floor cleaning implements usually include a cleaning head and a cleaning element. The cleaning element is either fixedly mounted on the cleaning head or removably mounted on the cleaning head. Examples of cleaning elements are sponges, brushes and sheets of fabric material.
Floor cleaning implements also usually include a handle. The handle usually comprises an elongated pole about 3½ to 4½ feet in length and having a top end and a bottom end. The bottom end of the pole is attached, either fixedly or pivotally, to the cleaning head. The handle also often includes a hang cap which is attached to the top end of the pole. The purpose of the hang cap is to enable a person to hang the cleaning implement on a hook, which may be on a wall or other surface, rather then have the cleaning implement rest on a floor. Hang caps are shaped either straight (i.e. their longitudinal axis is straight) or angled (i.e. their longitudinal axis is bent at an angle in the vicinity of around 130 to 150 degrees). Some straight hang caps are fixedly mounted onto the top end of the pole while other straight hang caps are rotatably mounted onto the top end of the pole so that the pole can necessarily rotate, relative to the hang cap to position the cleaning head at the bottom of the pole at the proper orientation with the wall on which the hook is attached.
In U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2002/0026680 to G. W. Kingry et al. there is disclosed a cleaning implement, such as a floor mop. The cleaning implement includes a handle and a cleaning head attached to the handle. The handle includes a hang cap. The cleaning head has at least one attachment structure for receiving and retaining a sheet about the cleaning head. The attachment structure includes a base triangle and a plurality of substantially pie-shaped sections whose apexes meet at a substantially common point adjacent the base triangle. Two sides of the base triangle and two sides of each of the pie shaped sections are defined by slits passing through the flexible material forming the attachment structure such that the base triangle and each of the pie-shaped sections can be defected to receive the sheet. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,101,661 to N. J. Policchio et al. there is disclosed a cleaning implement comprising a handle and a removable cleaning pad. The cleaning pad is designed to provide multiple cleaning surfaces each of which contact the soiled surface during the cleaning operation. The cleaning pad also preferably has the ability to absorb at least about 10 g of water per g of pad.
Other patents of interest are U.S. Pat. No. 5,887,314 to L. J. Jordon, Jr. which discloses a telescoping handle with multiple attachment heads, U.S. Pat. No. 6,003,187 to H. Footer et al. which discloses a mop having a hang cap and U.S. Design Pat. 417,934 to H. Footer which discloses a mop having a hang cap.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a floor cleaning implement which includes a new and improved handle.